Seth Bernard has already been a Philby Award winner, so I am always interested in what musical sojourns he decides to embark upon. However, when I checked out his “Eggtone Blues” album from earlier in 2017, I wasn’t quite sure how to take it.
I expected different, but I didn’t expect radically different.
Now, that can go either way, good or bad. I had to listen to it a couple of times justto sort it out. Sometimes art can work on several layers. Well the songs on “Eggtone Blues” often had several audio layers piled on top of each other without getting at the several layers of art within the songs.
On top of that, the songs all appeared to have a political and ecological approach. The first cut “21st Century Blues” has audio featuring Bill McKibben from 350.org, who is an authority on global warming and climate change. Another track, “Line 5 Blues” features information as important as yesterday’s news, which literally was news yesterday! It deals with an aging oil pipeline going underneath the Mackinac Straits and Michigan’s freshwater supply.
The album features many of the Earthwork Music roster of musicians. In case you aren’t aware of Earthwork Music, it’s a label that is homegrown and environmentally sound in its musical endeavors, headquartered in Lake City, Michigan. It’s a label where the newest generation of hippies are born and raised.
The roster is as talented as any group of musicians that anyone can assemble, and there isn’t anything that the label or the artists can’t do if they decide they want to do it. On the album, these include Max Lockwood, Samantha Cooper, and Dede Alder to name just a few.
So back to the album.
In my mind, as I continued to listen to “Eggtone Blues,” I began to think of it as an audio book with ultra cool music. But that summation would not do the album justice. So you’re just going to have to check it out for yourself.
It’s not easy to combine politics and music in a package that doesn’t seem heavy handed, but “Eggtone Blues succeeds on so many levels. The music is good on it’s own, but there’s so much more! Just like in video games or DVDs, the hidden “easter eggs” give the listener whatever depth they want to experience the album. It’s part of a series by Seth Bernard, and a new one which is being released as of this writing. That makes me happy, because I think “Eggtone Blues” is one of the best albums of the year!
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